In an article that appeared in your newspaper on November 10 2011, entitled Goldman Sachs is infatuated with Europe (Goldman Sachs s’entiche de l’Europe), your newspaper wrote that, “Goldman Sachs’ ‘savoir-faire’ image has suffered from the masking of Greek debts that the bank orchestrated in order to allow Athens to join the euro.”

This factually incorrect statement had already been made several times in your columns and it seriously harms the reputation of our institution.

In the past, we have spoken directly to Marc Roche, the author of the articles, about the inaccuracy of his comments, reminding him of the calendar of events, which is publicly available and easily found on our website.

He clearly does not wish to take this into account, which is why we would like you to publish the following letter to the editor in your next edition.

The financial transactions executed by Goldman Sachs occurred several months after the Council of European Ministers had approved Greece’s entry into the euro-zone, and it is therefore quite wrong to state that the transactions we executed permitted Greece to join the euro-zone.

The combined impact of the transactions completed by Goldman Sachs was limited to a 1.6 point drop in Greek debt—from 105.3% of GDP to 103.7% of GDP.

The transactions conducted by Goldman Sachs were similar to ones undertaken by other large banks for other European countries. Goldman Sachs consulted with Eurostat, the agency in charge of European statistics, to confirm the appropriate treatment of currency swaps.

It is also not true to say that we have a negative view of the Euro, contrary to the assertion made by Marc Roche. We have consistently been a supporter, and our views are readily available in frequently published research.